When does your solar year end? New stretch goal of 50MWh?Got 77kWh today so reached my yearly target of 40MWh.
Congratulations. I enjoyed the day riding my electric dirtbike in 18°C sunny weather…Got 77kWh today so reached my yearly target of 40MWh.
End of March.When does your solar year end? New stretch goal of 50MWh?
Sunny afternoon here too, but -25C and dropping to -30C for tomorrow. Not nice for dirtbike, but ok for snowmobile.Congratulations. I enjoyed the day riding my electric dirtbike in 18°C sunny weather…
You guys must be getting our weather, we are above freezing and getting (wait for it) RAINSunny afternoon here too, but -25C and dropping to -30C for tomorrow. Not nice for dirtbike, but ok for snowmobile.
I think we only saw a few days all winter that were normal -25/-30 C most of the time right around freezing temps or above and no snow.
Looking at (leaning toward) Sinclair ground mounts with that adjustable "screw-thingy". The big concerns I have are 1) snow and ice, which the vertical panels would solve, but I think 60-65 degree panels would also alleviate to a large extent,
and 2) minimizing the need for anything more than quarterly adjustments as I get older
and/or I'm out of the picture and pushing up daisies, in which case I want things to be easy for the boss, or not too expensive to hire someone to do. We have a large amount of land available at the new place, so I may end up just over-paneling to help with winter, including a vertical string or two into those "excess" panels. This may evolve over the next 2-3 years... Anyway, really enjoying your updates!
I don't think even 65 degree would do it here. Freezing rain/wet snow accompanied with fast temperature changes can freeze up those panels for long time here. Then again I'm so far north that even in summer solstice my optimal tilt would be over 50 degree, so going fixed vertical here isn't that bad. This doesn't mean that I should be recommending this to people living 2-4000km more south than me. We need a guinea pig.55 degrees max tilt on the Sinclair.
You might be able to cheat a little with being creative. But don't tell them you will be cheating as they will send it over to engineering and it takes forever. I sent emails regarding if they were making any progress and they never responded. I ended up finding some used MT Solar and the day I picked them up, Sinclair engineers finally responded. I guess they screwed the pooch on that one.
I'll be happier with the MT Solar, higher height array which means less length for same number of panels, I get 4 feet ground clearance easily at the 65° tilt.
I started turning mine back up yesterday, it was 47 days since winter solstice and I thought production just seemed a little shy of what I had been seeing. No snow here now anyway so you don't get that extra yield from the light reflecting off the snow when array is at 65°.
65° works well here. I did a recent video showing my array melting off crap like that in about 1.5 hours.I don't think even 65 degree would do it here. Freezing rain/wet snow accompanied with fast temperature changes can freeze up those panels for long time here. Then again I'm so far north that even in summer solstice my optimal tilt would be over 50 degree, so going fixed vertical here isn't that bad. This doesn't mean that I should be recommending this to people living 2-4000km more south than me. We need a guinea pig.
I'd think that being more south with vertical/close to vertical AND bifacials would be better than expected IF there's enough albedo.
That’s what’s considered a perfect day? You Fins are a different breed.Would call it a perfect day with fresh snow on the ground and -30C morning/-15C afternoon, no clouds.
That and didn't run into a single polar bear. A perfect day.That’s what’s considered a perfect day? You Fins are a different breed.
Snow cover left early here this year. I think the drought here continues for another year. Spring planting looks to be dry so they will have to plant deep to get any moisture for germination.174kWh today. Would call it a perfect day with fresh snow on the ground and -30C morning/-15C afternoon, no clouds.
You are right. Here in the frozen upper peninsula of Michigan I have tested my normally vertical but fully adjustable array with as little as 5 degrees tilt off vertical, and fluffy snow (the kind cold areas get) will stack up on and ruin production.I don't think even 65 degree would do it here. Freezing rain/wet snow accompanied with fast temperature changes can freeze up those panels for long time here. Then again I'm so far north that even in summer solstice my optimal tilt would be over 50 degree, so going fixed vertical here isn't that bad.
My array is not totally vertical. Haven't measured it, but its around 80-85 degree to catch more noon sun in summer. My panels seem to have some kind of hydrophobic coating on them which may help with snow too. I have never seen any snow on them, not even little.You are right. Here in the frozen upper peninsula of Michigan I have tested my normally vertical but fully adjustable array with as little as 5 degrees tilt off vertical, and fluffy snow (the kind cold areas get) will stack up on and ruin production.
The light reflection off the snow in front makes me beat PVWatts and other predictions of power made by a tremendous margin on sunny or even moderately bright days.
So your set is 16,74kWp? Using that means if your set was to be same size as mine (44,1kWp) it should have produced 47,42MWh yearly. So production wise we can be pretty equal, but location wise you are ~3000km more south. It tells me my setup is working much better than expected.Nice production.
I only tipped over 18MWh for the last 12 months.